May's Sleepy Employment Numbers

If April showers bring May Flowers, and Mayflowers bring pilgrims, then the logical next step is May’s national employment statistics from the BLS, obviously. May’s numbers were virtually the same as April’s, that is to say, virtually the same as March’s. The number of total non-farm payroll jobs increased by 175,000, leaving the total number of unemployed to the United States at 11.8 million. While positive figures are always welcome, hiring has yet to pick up to its pre-recession pace. One good bit of news was that the number of long-term unemployed, those jobless for greater than 27 weeks, has been reduced by a million in the last year. Many of these job seekers who have been unsuccessful for years in finding a job find their task made even harder by the very time that has passed in their search. Employers haven’t been overly warm to this demographic in the past, so the steady decrease is a good sign for the strength of the job market. To read the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, click the link below.